


Cast as a villain

by Ryxl



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Plotting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-09
Updated: 2013-02-09
Packaged: 2017-11-28 16:51:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/676683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryxl/pseuds/Ryxl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just after deleted scene #7, and before the audience scene, Loki ponders the mess he's been entrusted with - and comes up with a plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cast as a villain

Loki had never been so relieved to not need sleep.

On top of everything else that had happened today, to be handed the throne-! He wanted nothing more than to throw down Odin’s spear and flee, to cry out that he was unworthy –  but that would mean bearing his shame before all, and it would leave Asgard vulnerable in her hour of need.

No. He would play the hand he had been dealt.

At least he knew, now, why he was different. Why he had never been able to drop easily into the land of slumber, nor really required rest for his body in that way. Jotunsleep, the books had called it. He remembered that now, the endless hours of reading and studying Odin had demanded of him, filling his mind with everything Asgard knew of Jotunheim while Thor played at being a warrior. _The Jotuns do not sleep as we do. They sit, and they become as ice._

Loki sat, golden spear held carefully in one hand, eyes unfocused as he stared blindly out from the Allfather’s throne. Before him spreads facts like pieces on a strategy table, and he toyed with them. As the situation stood, Asgard was vulnerable. Her king lay in Odinsleep, and might never wake. Her prince had been stripped of his powers and banished. And upon her throne sat a Jotun, whose sire had once again declared war. It had been terrible the first time, but they had had the Casket then. It lay now in the vault, Loki’s birthright, and one of the two targets the Jotuns would aim for. Keep it out of their reach, and they were merely giants and formidable warriors. Taunt them with it, perhaps, and they might forsake caution to get it back. The death of Odin Allfather would be their second goal, of course.

The hand not holding Odin’s spear curled into a fist. Word had already spread that Thor had been banished for inciting war; the dread rippling through the populace would weaken their forces more than Thor’s actual absence would. Loki judged that it would remove the advantage they gained from holding the Casket, and bring the two sides back to being evenly matched. If it came to open battle…well, better it not.

Thor was gone. Odin could not be awakened. Laufey could not be talked out of war.

_You know not what your actions would unleash; I do. We are beyond diplomacy now, Allfather._

Pale eyes widened; Loki’s breath hitched. At the time…at the time, he had not known that he was Laufey’s stolen child, but what if Laufey did? A murderer and a thief, he had said. Did he know? Had he thought Loki dead? He would not treat with the man who had stolen Casket and son in the same day, but would he treat with that stolen son? Men often assigned their own virtues, flaws, and ambitions to others – honest men expected honesty, dishonest men anticipated deceit. Would Laufey project his resentment onto his estranged son, and believe Loki willing to betray Asgard as he had been betrayed, or would it only arouse suspicion? Loki set that matter aside; he would worry at it later. For now, it was enough to know that he might be able to resolve the war, but it would mean nothing if Thor never returned or Odin never awakened, because it would mean Loki was stuck on the throne, living the lie that had been woven around him.

Odin could not be awakened. Could Thor be returned?

_What hope is there for Thor?_ He had asked their mother that, prying for answers. Banishment had seemed absolute, permanent. But… _There is always a purpose to everything your father does._ It was not an answer, barely more than a clue, and Frigga may not have had answer to give. But one did exist, he merely had to find it. Loki turned his ravening intellect to the problem, replaying his memory of that horrible scene, pushing aside his roiling emotions. There was no hint in that confrontation, but after…

_Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor._

There it was. That was the answer, the purpose behind the Allfather’s actions. He had not given an explanation, nor intimated that the banishment could ever ended, because if he had-

Loki swallowed. He knew Thor better than his brother knew himself. Their father had to have seen it, as well. Thor had to be broken of his ego, stripped of his pride. One could not seek humility for selfish reasons, as Thor would. It had to be thrust upon him in the wake of shock, grown by the seeds of loss. Thor was too convinced of his own greatness to make a good king, because self-assurance would blind him to truths he did not wish to see. Loki had proven that with the Jotuns in the vault; Thor had proven it on Jotunheim. And so Thor had to believe there was no way for him to return home, because only them would be put aside his pride and again be worthy of his power. It would be a long, hard lesson, trapped as he was on…

A moment’s searching the pathways for the shining trail left by the bifrost, and a tiny bit of Loki’s tension eased. Midgard. He was on Midgard, surrounded by beings no stronger than he now was. He would not be killed unless he was exceedingly stupid, and he would be at a great disadvantage in any fight because he would not be used to being mortal. He would be safe, and he would learn the harsh lessons of humility, and when he was finally worthy of holding Mjolnir and all the power that came with his station, it would return to him and he would come home a worthy king.

But how long would it take? If Odin never awakened, if Thor returned at last to see his brother sitting on the throne…

Thor was always the more popular of them. Would his return spark a civil war? As it was, Sif and the Warriors Three no doubt already suspected his hand at work, eager to cast him as the villain trying to usurp Thor. When they came, as they no doubt would to plead with Odin on Thor’s behalf, and saw him on the throne…

Loki’s breath caught in his throat.

Cast him as the villain…

The plan unfurled itself before his unseeing eyes, beautiful and terrible in its elegance. It would require timing, and great sacrifice if it failed, but if it succeeded…

A part of him wept at how easy it would be. Thor’s friends were already willing to think the worst of him. Heimdall would be suspicious after the events of the coronation, but he had demonstrated that he could be swayed from his sworn duty if his pride was stung; Loki would use this to his advantage. Laufey could no doubt be tempted by the twin prizes of the Casket and the Allfather’s life.

That just left Thor. Loki could break him, he knew. Strip away the comfortable assumptions one by one and leave him naked and alone, with nothing but his honor as a Son of Odin. After that, it would be simplicity itself to fill his heart with the pain of betrayal and the fires of righteous fury, force him to act in Asgard’s defense and be a hero. But heroes only arose to bring down a villain.

Would Thor understand, Loki wondered? Afterwards, when all was said and done and he’d confessed his part, would Thor remember what had been said before the coronation that he’d ruined?

_…but never doubt that I love you._

For an agonizing moment, Loki weighed everything he would potentially be throwing away against everything Asgard stood to gain. Peace. Security. A good and noble king. Had not Odin stressed, time and time again, that the duty of a king was to serve his people, and not the other way around? He would be sacrificing the affections of his closest friends, betraying the love his brother had for him, and burning his own reputation to ashes, but would it not be worth it if even one child grew up without knowing the horrors of a war his actions had averted?

Pale eyes closed, and Loki focused on keeping his breath steady. There was no choice, not really. Thor needed a villain to spur him on and become a true hero, and who better than the one who loved him most and knew him best? He would be cold; he would be cruel and calculating. Let their friends think him mad with power. Let their people think him a liar and a traitor. Any fool can die for a cause; Loki would forever live with the shame of his actions and be comforted by them if only this plan saved the realm and people he loved from war, and gave them the king they deserved.


End file.
